DATE=2/17/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CLINTON-AFRICA (L)
NUMBER=2-259281
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: President Clinton, addressing the privately-
organized "National Summit on Africa" in Washington has
appealed for expanded U-S involvement in Africa - including
support for the planned U-N peacekeeping operation in
Congo-Kinshasa and efforts to control the AIDS epidemic. V-
O-A's David Gollust reports from the White House.
TEXT: Mr. Clinton's address to at the summit is part of an
increased administration focus on Africa that will include
next week a video-teleconference appearance by the
president at the Burundi peace conference in Tanzania,
which is being organized by former South African President
Nelson Mandela.
Addressing more than 2000 delegates from across the United
States and Africa at the Washington Convention Center Mr.
Clinton said helping Africa end its bloody conflicts of
recent years should be a major U-S priority.
In particular, he appealed for congressional support for
his proposal for the United States to help underwrite the
55-hundred-member U-N force that would oversea
implementation of the Lusaka accord for ending the multi-
lateral war in Congo. He called the accord more than a
ceasefire, but a blueprint for building peace for which
African countries themselves have taken the lead role:
/// CLINTON ACTUALITY ///
We need to think hard about what is at stake here.
African countries have taken the lead, not just the
countries directly affected either. They are not
asking us to solve their problems or to deploy our
military. All they have asked is that we support
their own efforts to build peace and to make it last.
We in the United States should be willing to do this.
It is principled and practical.
/// END ACT ///
The President promised the United States would redouble
efforts to combat tuberculosis, malaria and particularly
the AIDS epidemic in Africa. This would include, among
other things, the plan he outlined in his State of the
Union message to Congress last month to give U-S drug firms
incentives to produce affordable vaccines for the world's
poorest regions.
He said AIDS threatens to reduce average life-expectancy in
sub-Saharan Africa by 20 years and undercut promising
economic growth trends in many countries. And to really
make inroads against the epidemic, he said Africans have to
set aside religious and cultural taboos, and confront the
sexual behavior through which the disease is largely being
spread:
/// CLINTON ACT TWO ///
We shouldn't pretend that we can give injections and
work our way out of this. We have to change behavior,
attitudes. It has to be done in an organized,
disciplined systematic way. And you can do more in
less time for less money in a preventive way to give
the children of Africa their lives back and the
nations of Africa their futures back with an
aggressive prevention campaign than anything else.
And there is no excuse for not doing it. It has to be
done. (Applause)
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Clinton also urged greater international support for
education in Africa, debt relief, and expanded access for
African goods in world markets. In that regard, he
appealed to the U-S Senate and House to finally reconcile
differences over the administration's African trade
initiative and send him a completed bill by next month.
(Signed)
NEB/DAG/JO
17-Feb-2000 13:37 PM EDT (17-Feb-2000 1837 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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